McClendon's Departure From Chesapeake Should Prompt Further Changes And Equity Appreciation [View article]

Any serious buyer would want to have the "McClendon problem" out of the way before an offer...

Why would a serious buyer care one way or the other since McClendon couldn't block an offer and it wouldn't take more than 30 seconds to give him a pink slip when the deal closed ?

Stranger things have happened vis-a-vis acquisitions, but it is hard to see $50/share when development of half of CHK's resource base is uneconomic at present, the Company is supposedly adding quality oil reserves, yet not fast enough to offset continuing impairments (another $3.3 billion in the third quarter), and net liabilities increase every quarter. $50/share comes out to about $33 billion, and if that is net $50 to stockholders, adding net liabilities brings the purchase price to $50 Billion.

Seems like a prudent buyer would wait for the auditors and outside engineers to finish up the 2012 financials before making a move. Moreover, even letting a prospective buyer in the door before a respectable period of time has passed after the COB has started unequivocally that the Company isn't for sale, as Archie Dunham did today, could conceivably raise the ire of the new SEC Chair.

But what do I know. I sold my company when oil was $10/barrel and NG around $1.50/Mcf. (That isn't a complaint).

Or maybe "Thundermug Energy." (For you youngsters out there, a Thundermug is what they called the pot kept under the bed in the old days in case you had a call from nature in the middle of the night and didn't want to take the long cold walk to the outhouse.)

Carl Icahn offers kind words for Aubrey McClendon as the Chesapeake (CHK) CEO heads for the door: "Aubrey has every right to be proud of the company he has built... and the collection of assets he has assembled... the best portfolio of energy assets in the country." CHK +10.8% AH. [View news story]

Just a rhetorical question auto44. You are probably right. Used to be an old saying "Borrow a little money and you have a serious lender; borrow a lot of money and you have a serious partner." Highly probable that CHK has violated the bond indentures, but so what if the bondholders call the bonds if CHK doesn't answer.

McClendon's Departure From Chesapeake Should Prompt Further Changes And Equity Appreciation [View article]

To rayduke and Zvi Bar's comments about quality jobs and profits to smart (lucky ?) investors, it can also be added that CHK made a lot of people wealthy by paying higher prices than others were willing to pay for leases, rigs and other things necessary for explosive growth. That is one of the reasons some in the industry resented the upstart.

Carl Icahn offers kind words for Aubrey McClendon as the Chesapeake (CHK) CEO heads for the door: "Aubrey has every right to be proud of the company he has built... and the collection of assets he has assembled... the best portfolio of energy assets in the country." CHK +10.8% AH. [View news story]

How Did Chesapeake Sell $12 Billion Of Assets And Actually Increase Its Debt? [View article]

TPG-Axon calls for another review by "credible experts" of land deals involving a company run by the son of SandRidge Energy (SD-2.3%) CEO Tom Ward, as the slugfest between the two sides continues. "For the board to dismiss our concerns as 'entirely unremarkable' is in fact remarkable," says the hedge fund, which has already moved to replace Ward and other board members. [View news story]

Would ex-Wall Streeters know a "credible expert" were they to chance across one ?

TPG-Axon releases a presentation detailing SandRidge Energy's (SD) related-party land transactions, including a call for an investigation of CEO Tom Ward. Entities affiliated with Ward's family appear to have acquired acreage in advance of purchases by SD in the same areas, then either sold it to third parties or kept it, TPG says. [View news story]

Don't have a dog in the fight, but think about this:

Frenetic leasing by dozens of companies in three states. Company and contract landmen swarming county seats and farm houses in search of mineral owners. Every coffee shop in every hamlet in Oklahoma and Kansas rife with rumors about a big leasing play.

So how does one prove that Entity A shared a secret with Entity B when half of the oil industry knew the secret ? Very easy if you are a lawyer - simply take about 10,000 depositions, get copies of the leases covering several million acres, examine each item, and if Entity A has one lease adjacent to Entity B, build a circumstantial case of conspiracy and collusion between A and B. Guaranteed to take upwards of ten years, enrich hundreds of lawyers, and leave stockholders poorer than when it started.

No Bakken, But Everything Else - Chesapeake Energy Is Set Up To Succeed [View article]

No Bakken, But Everything Else - Chesapeake Energy Is Set Up To Succeed [View article]

Many things positive, but assets were sold to pay down debt, yet debt contimues to climb, illustrating the hard fact that CHK is a very inefficient operator and cannot succeed until management gets costs under control.

Call Me Crazy, But I Think Chesapeake Energy Has Turned Over A New Leaf [View article]

Commendable as the new board's actions are, like I have said before, ultimate success will require micro management at the field level, not macro management at the board level. Moreover, history has shown that once service company contractors (especially drilling contractors) have caught up with demand, in house service companies become an uncompetitive drag on earnings.